Horizontal windmill



No. 609,378. Patented Aug. l6, I893. J. A. WElT-ZE'L. HORIZONTALWINDMILL.

\ (Application filed Feb 28, 1B9'7.) (No MudeI.)

2 Sheets-Sheet l.

No. 609,378. Patented Aug. l6, I898. J. A. WEITZEL.

HORIZONTAL WINDMILL.

. (Applicatiomfiled Feb. 26.1897.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2..

UITE ST JOHN A. WEITZEL, OF REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA.

HCRIZONTAL WINDMILL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,378, dated August16,189 Application filed February 26, 1897- serial No. 625,203. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. WEITZEL, a citizen'of the United States,residing at Redlands,

1n the county of San Bernardino and State of California, have inventednew and useful Improvements in Horizontal Windmills,of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to those windmills having horizontally-arrangedshutters adapted to open and close and to present upon one side of thevertical axis of the mill broad fiat surfaces to receive the force ofthe wind and upon the other side of the axis of the mill to presentpractically no. resistance to the wind passing through the wings as theytravel into the eye of the wind.

My invention comprises the various features of construction andcombinations of.

parts hereinafter set forth, whereby I increase the efficiency anddecrease the number of parts of the mill and provide a mill which issimple, durable, and cheap.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention.

Figure 1 is a perspective side elevation of a mill embodying myinvention. In this view the mill is shown in action. Fig. 2 is afragmental side elevation of a portion of my improved mill. Fig. 3 isafragmental sectional view illustrating the arrangement of parts. Fig.4; is a fragmental side elevation showing one form of shutter-operatingmechanism. Fig. 5 is a fragmental detail illustrating the gudgeon andcrank-arm.

In the drawings, A represents a frame upon which the mill is mounted.

B is a base-block or bed-plate which is se cured upon the frame and isprovided with an upwardly-projecting annular boss b;

O is a cam-collar which is journaled upon the boss and is adapted toturn freely there'- upon. This collar is provided upon its upper facewith a cam-track b, the face of which is beveled at an angle with theaxis of the vertical shaft D, upon which is mounted the wing-frames E.The wing-frames. are preferablymade of angle-iron and are rigidlysecured to the shaft D by means of flanged collars F. Each wing-frame isprovided with series of shutters G, which are preferably formed ofcorrugated sheet metal in order to secure lightness, together withrigidity, and

.b means of gudgeons g g.

the impact of the wind. These shutters are each pivoted to itsrespective wing-frame by These gudgeons are of a diameter sufficientlylarge to fit closely within one of the corrugations, so that the axes ofthe gudgeons are in the mid-plane of the shutters, and each gudgeon isrigidly se cured to the shutter by brazing or soldering. By seating thegudgeon in the corrugation the contacting surface between the gudgeonand the wing is very large, and a rigid union may be thus secured. Thecorrugations stiffen the wings to such an extent as to avoid thenecessity of extending the shaft from one end of the wing to the other,thus cheapening the cost and lessening the weight of the wing. Eachwing-frame,with its corrugated sheetmetal shutters, constitutes avertical wing, and each of the shutters is hung to turn on a horizontalaxis and is corrugated throughout with corrugations which extendparallel to the axis of the shutter, so as to give a superior frictionalface to impede vertical deflection of the wind. The whole wing is. thusprovided with a closely-corrugated face, the corrugations of which runhorizontal to prevent any readyupward or downward escape of the windfrom the face of the wing. By this means I am enabled to provide wingsof very slight cost and which are very light and afford a; high degreeof efficiency, coupled with'great strength and rigidity.

The gudgeon g is a combined crank-arm and gudgeon, an arm g projectingfrom the inner end of the gudgeon and extending out- 'ward from the wingto form a crank, the

outer end of which is pivoted to the pitmanrod H.

All of the shutters of each individual wing are operated by one of thepitman-rods H, and each pitman-rod is provided at its lower end with acone-shaped bearing or caster wheel h, which is adapted to travel uponthe beveled face of the cam-track. By beveling the track at an anglewith the shaft D and providing a cone-wheel to travel upon the track thecone-wheel is arranged to travel upon the track without that slippingand grinding which is present where the track and the bearing-face ofthe wheel are at right angles with the axis of the shaft.

Upon the upper end of the shaft D, I secure a cast-metal cap I, to whichis secured the ends of the stay-rods J, the other ends of which areattached to the outer ends of the wing-frames E and are adapted tosupport such frames. The frames E are connected with each other bytie-rods J to insure ri gidity.

K is the governor, which is composed of two balls 70, secured to arms7a, which are pivoted to the cast-metal cap I. A sleeve L is arranged toslide upon the shaft D, and connecting-rods 7t connect the sleeve withthe arms in the ordinary manner, so that when the governor-balls swingoutward the sleeve will slide upward along the shaft. The sleeve isprovided with two eyes for the reception of the rods M, the upper endsof which are arranged to slide freely upward through the eyes, and thelower ends of which are rigidly secured in a ring N, which is arrangedwithin the cam-collar O and upon the top of the boss I) and is adaptedto turn freely within the collar and to slide up and down therein. Thetop face of this ring is beveled to correspond to the bevel of thehearing or caster wheels h.

I provide means independent of the governor whereby to operate the ringto throw the mill out of action. These means consist of the yoke P,which is adapted to encircle the shaft D and is provided withoutwardlyextending arms 19, which are adapted to seat within recesses11, provided in the boss 1). %:his construction is illustrated in detailin Q is a bifurcated lever which is pivoted to the under side of thebase-block by means of a pivot q, and the ends of which lever areconnected with the yoke by means of connecting-rods q. A cord Q isarranged to operate the lever to push the ring up into the positionshown in dotted lines in Fig. 3. The ring will revolve freely upon thearm of the yoke without engaging therewith, the rods M being rigidlysecured to the ring, so that when the ring is pushed upward the rodswill slide freely upward through the eyes in the sleeve L. Thus when themill is thrown out of the wind by means of the lever Q the governor willnot tend to force the ring downward or to thrust the lower ends of therods downward through the ring, which would cause them to catch upon thearms of the yoke P.

In Fig. 4 of the drawings I have shown improved means for operating theshutters of the wings. In these views I have shown an are S secured tothe outer end of the pivots or gudgeons and provided with teeth 8. Areciprocating pitman S is arranged in suitable guideways T, which aresecured to the wing-frame, and is provided with sockets s, which receivethe teeth of the arcs, so that as the pitman is moved back and forth theshutters will thereby be opened and closed. This construction retainsthe hearing or cone wheels h upon the ends of the pitmen always at thesame distance from the shaft D. This is not possible wherea. crankconnection is employed for operating the shutters, and therefore whenthe crank-arm is employed the cone-wheel h must be made of greaterlength in order to provide for this variation.

The shaft D is j ournaled in the journal-box B, which is provided in thebase-block or bed-plate and is babbitted, as indicated by b. The lowerend of the shaft is provided with a steel pivot stepped into a steelbearing in the ordinary manner.

Beveled gears U are arranged to transmit the power from the rotatingshaft.

V is the tail of the mill. This tail is of sheet-iron secured to anL-shaped frame-bar V, which is bent to fit around the collar 0 and isbolted thereto by means of a clamp V". A bearing-wheel W' may beprovided to run upon a track w to support the tail, or acounterbalance-Weight X may be arranged upon an arm X, projecting fromthe other side of the collar, to balance the tail.

In practice the various parts being assembled to form the mill, as shownin Fig. 1, the wind striking on the tail of the mill swings the tailaway from the wind. The tail is secured to the cam-collar in such amanner that the elevated portion of the cam-track is upon one side ofthe extended axis of the tail, while't-he lower portion thereof is uponthe other side of such axis. Thus when the wind swings the tail intoline with the breeze those wings having the wheels of their pitmen uponthe lower portion of the camtrack will be closed and will receive thefull impact of the breeze. This causes them to travel toward the rear,successively bringing other wings forward. The bearing-wheels of thepitmen which operate the shutters successively travel down the inclineof the camtrack to the lower portion thereof, thus closing the shuttersand presenting a broad corrugated surface against which the windimpinges. The corrugations give a frictional surface which holds thewind better than a smooth surface, thus securing more power from abreeze of given velocity. The wings which travel toward the rear forcetheir respective bearing-wheels up the rear incline of the cam track tothe elevated portion thereof, and the shutters of such wings are therebyopened and turned edgewise toward the wind as the wings travel into theeye of the wind.

The nuts on upon the rods M are so adjusted that when the mill isrunning at the rate of speed desired the governor will not operate toraise the ring N sufficiently to engage with the bearing-wheels h,- butas soon as the speed becomes excessive the rods operate to raise thering, and the bearing wheels which project inside the track, engage withthe ring, and the shutters are prevented from fully closing, thusallowing a portion of the wind to escape through the wings and tothereby slacken the speed of rotation.

When it is desired to throw the mill out of the wind, the operator pullsupon the rope or cord Q, thus operating the bifurcated lever to raisethe yoke and push the ring up, thus raising the bearing-Wheels which areupon the lower portion of the track and thereby opening their respectiveshutters and bringing the mill to a standstill.

Now, having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a windmill, the combination set forth of a base; a collar mountedto rotate on the base-block and provided with a cam-track; a ringarranged within the collar; a vertical shaft journaled in the base;wing-frames secured to the shaft; shutters pivoted in the wing-frames;pitmen, each provided at its lower end with a wheel to travel upon thecam-track, and arranged to operate the shutters of one wing; a governorsecured upon the upper end of the shaft; rods connecting the governorwith the ring and adapted to elevate the ring as the speed of thegovernor increases.

2. In a windmill, the combination set forth of a cam-track; pitman-rods,each provided with a wheel adapted to travel upon the track and toproject inside the track and arranged to operate the shutters of themill; aring arranged within the track beneath the projecting portion ofthe wheels; a vertical shaft; a governor secured to the upper end of theshaft; rods rigidly secured at one end to the ring and having theirupper ends arranged to slide low the base; pitman-rods connecting theends of the lever with the yoke; means for operating the lever; wingssecured to the shaft and each composed of shutters adapted to open andclose; pitman-rods arranged to operate the shutters and each providedwith a wheel to travel upon the cam-track and the ring; a governer; andmeans connecting the governor with the ring and adapted to operatetoraise the ring when the speed becomes excessive.

JOHN A. WEITZEJL. Witnesses:

R. O. SHEPHERD, R. H. KENDALL.

